Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon & Others: Review

Title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home
Author:
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: October 2007
Number of Pages: 136
Series: Buffy the Vampire: Season Eight (#1)
Reason for Discovery: I love Buffy.

From GoodReads:

Collects: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, #1–5

Since the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers-newly legion-have gotten organized and are kicking some serious undead butt. But not everything's fun and firearms, as an old enemy reappears and Dawn experiences some serious growing pains. Meanwhile, one of the "Buffy" decoy slayers is going through major pain of her own.

Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series. The bestselling and critically acclaimed issues 1-5 are collected here for the first time, as are their covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty.


I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. I thought the show did a great job of being both a show about the supernatural and a show about daily life struggles. The arc about Willow's addiction to magic was a great way to talk about drug addiction without getting too after school special. One of the best episodes that I have ever seen about grief is the episode in which Buffy and the gang react to Buffy's mom's death.

This volume collects the first five issues in the Season Eight series. It is hard to give a full review of this book, because we are just meeting all the players. Buffy is still fighting vampires with the help of other slayers, Xander is using those military skills that he picked up all those years ago when he became a special ops guy for one Halloween and running the slayer operations, Willow is doing witchy things, and Dawn is a giant after an unfortunate romantic liaison. The Big Bad appears to be a military group that feels that Buffy is a terrorist (she did blow up her hometown in the series finale of the television show). Also, the Big Bad has recruited two old enemies from the television show. Although these five issues mainly focus on setting the stage, there are a few fantastic fights and we get to see Buffy doing what Buffy is best at. 

The series is probably best for someone who has just watched the television show, has read up on the show on Wikipedia, or has a really good memory of the show. I must admit that even though I love Buffy, it has been a few years, since I watched the show, so I did not recognize some of the characters in their drawn form. I had to ask my husband who one of the old enemies was! Even with difficulty recognizing/remembering who some of the characters are, I am really looking forward to getting the next volume from the library and seeing where the story goes.

I give this book four out of five kitties.


8 comments:

Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer said...
November 6, 2013 at 10:51 PM

Fan books are always fun. Me, I am a Doctor Who fan and will read anything in print about him :)

Unknown said...
November 6, 2013 at 11:43 PM

I am a huge Doctor Who fan too! Part of the reason that I went on a first date with my husband is because he liked Doctor Who. :)

Chanzie said...
November 7, 2013 at 3:12 AM

I have never thought to read the books, I loved the show. Great Review Pam!

Bellas Shelf said...
November 7, 2013 at 10:33 PM

It's been awhile since I have read a book from the Buffy universe. I honestly was more of an Angel gal myself. Buffy still holds a place in my vampire loving heart.
I am glad to know this book exists though.

Unknown said...
November 7, 2013 at 11:09 PM

If you love the show, you might like the books too. The first few issues are pretty good. :)

Unknown said...
November 7, 2013 at 11:10 PM

I believe there are Angel comics too. ;) I tried watching Angel, but for some reason I could not get into it. I need to give it another go.

Kimberly @ Turning the Pages said...
November 8, 2013 at 8:57 PM

Oooh finally! Someone who's blog I follow is reviewing a Buffy graphic novel! I love graphic novels and back in the day I loved the television show but I have yet to pick up one of the graphic novels looks like I'm going to have to start though :)
-Kimberly @ Turning the Pages

Unknown said...
November 10, 2013 at 11:19 PM

I finally decided to pick up this series. I am getting them from the library, so the reviews won't be right after each other unfortunately. :( I should be getting the next volume within the next two weeks *hopefully.*

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